1973 vs. 2013 - Finding Parallels Between Pink Floyd and Kendrick Lamar, and How Two Entirely Different Albums Share Traits in Music History

“If Pirus and crips, all got along, they’d prolly gun me down by the end of this song. Seems like the whole city go against me, every time I’m in the street, I hear ‘YAWK YAWK YAWK YAWK’…”

These are the opening lyrics to Kendrick Lamar’s “m.A.A.d. City,” the first rap song I’ve ever heard. I remember my first time hearing it clear as day. I was in my seventh grade history class, working on some project, and autoplay on Youtube played a “music video” for the song. The video itself was actually the song superimposed over scenes from The Hughes Brothers’ Menace II Society. That day, my life was forever changed for the better. 

At the time, I was mostly listening to Fall Out Boy and Twenty One Pilots, (thank god I got past that phase right?) bands that I still appreciate, but no longer call myself a fan of, as my taste has moved on since then. But on that fateful day, I traded in bass guitars and whiny lyrics, for rolling 808’s and technical bars about growing up in an environment that I could not relate to whatsoever. 

I should make it clear that yes, I’m aware that I, like many others, grew up in privilege, listening to music about growing up in poverty. At the age of 13, I wasn’t comprehending that Kendrick Duckworth was expressing himself in the only way he felt he could. I didn’t know that when Kendrick said: 

“When we in traffic and tragic happens, that shit ain’t no threat

You movin’ backwards if you suggest that you sleep with a TEC

Go buy a chopper and have a doctor on speed dial, I guess

M.A.A.d city”

He was relaying a mindset that I had no concept of. Hell, I didn't even know that a TEC 9 Semi-automatic was a pistol, or that “chopper” was slang for an AK-47. At the time, my undeveloped, 13 year old brain simply thought, “oh man, this sounds cool and makes me happy. I’m going to listen to this ‘Kendrick Lamar’ dude for the rest of my life.” And here I am, still bumping Good Kid, M.A.A.d City (2013) to this day. I even own the Vinyl.

Thanks to Kendrick Lamar, I’m now a huge fan of Hip Hop. But, I also credit Mr. Duckworth’s discography as a key reason why my taste in music is so broad. If you look at my recently downloaded section on Apple Music, (YES, Apple Music! I don’t want to hear it. Spotify is lame and doesn’t pay artists squat, plus they support OpenAI) you’ll see a vast spread of genres. They range from Hip Hop and R&B, to Country and Rock n Roll. But, you’ll also find a steady mix of Soul and Blues music, with the occasional Pop song thrown in the mix. Had I not been introduced to Hip Hop at such a young age, I would guess that the range of my taste would be severely limited. 

Now I want to clarify something. Yes, Hip Hop probably makes up about 65-70% of my library, and probably close to 80% of what I listen to regularly. But I will be the first to tell you that Rock n Roll holds the true key to my heart. I was raised on Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, The Beatles, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and so many more classic rockers of the 70s and 80s. 

I’ve seen Bruce Springsteen at least 5 times and I’ve seen U2 at the United Center. Rock n Roll is a major part of my life, and helped shape who I am as a person today. 

Which is why the second album I’ll be opining about today is none other than Pink Floyd’s 1973 classic, The Dark Side of the Moon. 50 years before Kendrick Lamar would release GKMC, bassist Roger Waters and his band, Pink Floyd, were in a pickle. See, five years prior, the band’s original front man, Syd Barrett, lost his mind. There’s no better way to say that unfortunately. The man behind The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was embraced by the clutches of Lysergic acid, or LSD, and amphetamines. After years of heavy substance abuse, Barrett was just not the man he used to be, and stepped away from the band. His frontman status would be fully replaced 3 years later in 1971, by friend of the band David Gilmour. 

Waters, Gilmour, and the rest of Pink Floyd decided to pursue a concept album about things that “make people mad.” Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, (EMI Studios at the time) the album took them just under a year to record. Apparently, studio sessions were often broken up for personal reasons, like Waters wanting to watch Arsenal FC games, or the entire band wanting to watch Monty Python’s Flying Circus. This should give you a glance into how weird some of these guys were at the time. 

If you’ve never had the pleasure of listening to The Dark Side of the Moon, do yourself the favor. It’s 45 minutes, 10 songs, and is simply exquisite. The guitar solo on “Time” is one of the best solos of all time. It’s up there with Eagles’ “Hotel California” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird.” The solo takes your breath away, and you realize that somehow, 6 metal strings were able to create one of the most beautifully captivating pieces of music ever put on wax. 

The album as a whole plays as if it is one long song, each song blending into the next as if it were all recorded in one long session. It is a unified expression of sonic creativity, and a blessing to one’s ears. 

Okay, you’re probably reading this and thinking to yourself: “What the hell is this guy on about? These albums have absolutely nothing to do with each other.” And, musically and historically speaking, you’d be correct. But today, that’s not what I want to talk about. It is true that these two albums are quintessentially different, not just in time, but in space. One, recorded in a lofty studio in London with all of the bells and whistles available at the time. The other, mostly recorded in a living room in Compton. 

So, why did I decide to compare these albums today?

Framing. 

Each of these albums tells a larger story and builds a world for the listener to dive into as if watching a movie. GKMC is literally subtitled “A short film by Kendrick Lamar.” Both albums expose the artists’ problems with their immediate society. As well, GKMC and Dark Side are accented by the voices of people in Pink Floyd and Duckworth’s lives. On Dark Side, a man’s voice can be heard across the album, expressing his nonchalance towards death, and acknowledging that everyone goes mad at one point or another. On GKMC, the entire album is framed by phone calls and recordings of Kendrick and his friends on a “typical day” in Compton. They can be heard shooting the breeze at times, and other times confronting one another as to what to do in order to get revenge on their “enemies.” 

However, both albums are also subdued compared to the cultural impact that came with the artists’ later projects, and their critiques on a national level. 

Dark Side criticizes capitalism, English apathy, and eschews the increasingly sound bite driven era of Rock n Roll. “Time” calls out everyday Brits and their inaction to make their lives better. Pink Floyd express their desire for the “anyman” to avoid sitting on their hands. 

“Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain

You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you

No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun”  

They tell the listener exactly what to be afraid of - by the time you start, it could already be too late. So why are you waiting?

Dark Side also harshly criticizes the capitalist society that England finds itself in. “Money,” calls out people who have it, and those who want it. They say, “sure it’s fun to have, but what are you really doing with it? Buying a jet, getting caviar, owning a football team? Good for you.” Adversely, they also contextualize the inherent desire to have money. They’re calling out the fact that everyone, rich and poor alike, will be selfish with their earnings, even if they claim not to be. 

“Money, well get back

I’m alright, Jack, keep your hands off of my stack

Money, it’s a hit

Don’t give me that goody-good bullshit”

In an era filled with flashiness and glam rock, they chose to pave a new path. And while Dark Side brings societal issues to light, compared to the deep dive exposition of the UK’s school system on 1979’s The Wall, Dark Side may as well have been a mosquito biting the back of an elephant. 

The same can be said for GKMC. Duckworth touches on problems with his immediate environment, but mostly addresses his own faults. Songs like  “The Art of Peer Pressure,” and “Money Trees,” explore how ‘hood culture’ and trying to be a gangster led to a vicious cycle of violence and substance abuse. However, the real meat of this album comes from Kendrick’s introspection of his relationships and his own reactions to his scenario. “Good Kid” represents Kendrick’s ‘innocence’ in his surroundings. Throughout the album, we hear snippets of conversations between Kendrick’s friends, discussing who they’re going to rob, what “bitch I’m tryna fuck on tonight,” and even how to shoot at another group of teenagers. On “Good Kid,” Kendrick explains that he’s essentially stuck in the middle here. He never claimed any gang colors, red being the Piru Bloods, and Blue being the Eastside Crips. While he’s affiliated with the Pirus, he is not a member. (I feel like this should be noted, as other rappers from his area often claim certain sets, Kendrick has never publicly said he is an all out Piru.) On “Good Kid,” he expresses his desire to walk the line between the gangster life, and being the good man he knows he is deep down. 

This song directly contrasts with “m.A.A.d city,” the gangsta rap inspired song that made me fall in love with hip hop. On that track, MC Eiht’s verse depicts the gangster figure that Kendrick could have become, and Kendrick posits a question: how would you feel about him had he killed someone in the past? Would you believe him? Or is he just the innocent kid you see hooping in the street? The song ends with a conversation between Kendrick’s friends. The conversation takes place after a run in with a rival crew, but all is well as no one has gotten hurt. It’s clear that his unnamed friends haven’t stressed getting shot at, it’s just Thursday for them. This song leads to one of the most important songs on the album, through Kendrick’s peer saying: “Yo Dot you good my n****? Don’t even trip. Just lay back and drink this.”

On “Swimming Pools,” Kendrick dives into (pun intended) his relationship with alcohol. “Swimming Pools” shows Duckworth understanding that his surroundings create unneeded stress, and he and his friends react to this stress by turning to the bottle. They’ve just been through a wild ordeal, and the only way they can think to settle down is by getting drunk, leading them to fire back at their rivals. However, this time, one of his friends gets hit, and dies of his wounds. The song is, above all else, a cautionary tale about alcohol. The irony is, that while he warns listeners to be wary of impairment in themselves and their peers, it quickly became a song that played in clubs and house parties. We missed the memo. 

Yeah I went on a tangent there, I’ll admit it, but I’ll tie this back to my main point. GKMC can be seen as a frame of reference for audiences. It is Kendrick explaining his background in the scope of one day, and it allowed Kendrick to set up his next album. Dark Side was a similar step in this direction. While 1975’s Wish You Were Here interjects, Dark Side still acts as a stepping stone for Pink Floyd’s journey towards a full blown commentary on English Society. 

Similar to Pink Floyd, Kendrick would release an album that forced audiences to take a step back and examine their society on a large scale. This album was, of course, To Pimp a Butterfly. TPAB, similar to The Wall, would break the mold on how listeners viewed their society. While The Wall focuses on conformity and the English schooling system, (see 1982’s Pink Floyd: The Wall) TPAB would focus on the ever present racism in modern America. The 2015 Grammy dominating album would go on to accompany a movement that has been ongoing since the 1960s. The lead single “Alright” would help grow the Black Lives Matter movement, and set the American pop culture scene aflame. 

The way these albums (GKMC and Dark Side) act in the artists’ larger discography have clear parallels. Both albums skyrocketed Pink Floyd and Kendrick Lamar into the mainstream, at least further than they had been. Both express opinions on societal norms, but keep themselves poised in a way that allows them to return to these opinions stronger, and more aggressively later on in the respective artists’ careers. 

If you couldn’t tell, I’m a huge fan of both of these albums. If you haven’t listened to either all the way through, and in one sitting, take the time to do so. Both are 10/10 albums that have been and will continue to be brought up in all time greatest conversations as long as these conversations are being had. 

Also, I didn’t write this in an effort to compare the two albums. That isn’t possible. It’s like trying to compare a Ferrari F40 to a McLaren P1. Both are the apex of their era, and should be treated with the respect they deserve, separately. I just wanted to point out parallels I found in the storytelling, as well as the albums’ abilities to captivate audiences.

I hope you enjoyed this one, I know it was pretty long, but I’m passionate about these projects and the artists that created them. Thanks for reading.